Iwas looking at American Shps Sunk In WW2. We had 4troop ships going in on Normanady and the ship in front of us was struck by a mine and sunk. I think about 20 men were lost. I was on the usat Borinqen, The Navy Armed guard was on this ship as on all usat troop ships, I noticed this was not listed. I was a permanent party sargent on the Borinquen who watch it being unloaded and sunk.

USAT Borinquen

Posted by Jim Guild on October 13, 2011, 3:40 pm, in reply to "Usat Santa Clara"71.195.124.161

Mr. Sabatino, My father, John E. Guild may have been one of your ship mates. He also sailed on the Borinquen during WW II. I was thrilled to find your message, photo and logs. Would love to learn more Thank you for your service Jim Guild

Re: USAT Borinquen

Posted by Shannon Smith on November 11, 2011, 10:27 am, in reply to "USAT Borinquen"204.246.4.105

My grandfather, James W. Seibert, served as a medic on the Borinquen. He was from Evansville Indiana and was aboard the Borinquen docked in NY on 9/1/45. I would love to hear from anyone who served with him. Thank you all for your service, and Happy Veterans Day. I have many pictures of my grandfather and the troops he served with. RIP James W. Seibert. You are so missed by our family.

Re: Usat Santa Clara

Posted by Ted O'Brien on September 22, 2008, 10:35 am, in reply to "Usat Santa Clara"

Mr Sabatino,

My father, Lt.(Jg) Donald O'Brien, was the Naval Armed Guard Commander of the Borinquen on D-Day +1 when the Susan B. Anthony in the same troop convoy struck a mine and went down on the approach to Omaha Beach. No lives were lost. Dad served aboard the Borinquen from Jan 44 until December 44, before being transferred to Beach Battalion School and service in the Pacific.

Incidentally thank you for your list of voyages of the Borinquen---it has helped me chart my father's wartine service.

Ted; You are correct It was the Susan B Anthony. I got the info from another source. One of my friends wrote a letter that also confirned this. sorry I misled anybody.I probably met your father since it was a small ship . I had 27 months on this ship.

Did you know my father Ronnie Diaz. He was a Honduran line keeper on te Santa Clara in Normandy. He died six years ago.

Re: USAT Santa Clara

Posted by Ron Carlson on April 15, 2008, 12:20 pm, in reply to "Usat Santa Clara"134.67.6.11

The web page American Merchant Ships Sunk in WWII (http://www.armed-guard.com/sunk.html) has as its source a book titled "A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking" by Captain Arthur R. Moore.

There is a similar web page, U.S. Merchant Ships Sunk or Damaged in World War II (http://usmm.org/shipsunkdamaged.html) that lists Captain Moore's book as one of its numerous sources.

Neither of these web pages include a ship named SANTA CLARA as one of the ships sunk during World War II, either at Normandy or any other location.

This web page, List of ships of the United States Army (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_of_the_United_States_Army) lists a number of US Army Transport ships including ships named USAT SANTA BARBARA, USAT SANTA MARIA and USAT SANTA ROSA but no USAT SANTA CLARA.

Further research for a ship named SANTA CLARA, however, yields some interesting information. There was a ship named the SUSAN B. ANTHONY (AP-72) that sank at Normandy after hitting a mine; that ship had originally been named SANTA CLARA. See, for example, this page from the U.S. Navy's Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/s20/susan_b_anthony.htm. The description of the loss of this ship is very similar to your recollection, except that there was no loss of life in the sinking.

A similar although shorter description is found at http://history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-s/ap72.htm in which the ship is referred to as the USS SUSAN B. ANTHONY. USS, of course, designates a ship of the U.S. Navy so presumably it would be improper to refer to this ship as USAT, which designated ships belonging to the U.S. Army Transportation Service. This fact may also explain the absence of this ship from the first two web pages mentioned at the beginning of this message. The two pages speak of merchant ships lost during World War II, whereas the USS SUSAN B. ANTHONY would be a naval vessel, not a merchant vessel.

So your general recollection is correct but the ship was known by a different name at the time.

Thanks to Ron Carison for the correction about the Santa Clara. I just had a freind die that had kept a diary on the trip to Nornmandy. He had the ship that was sunk as the Susan B Anthony.We made 20 plus trips in convoys from the states to British Isles and we knew the Santa ships were with us on some of these voyages.I to beleve the name was changed. I did find some where that said it was the Santa Clara and 20 were lost. At the time they said all got off safely.I'm sorry if I was wrong on this name.Five ships went to Normandy. Four came out. We spent the rest of the war shuttling troops in and out of France. Then to Marseille France for the Pacific. The war ended and we returmed to the states.